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Sustaining the Earth's Watersheds: Agricultural Research Data System (STEWARDS)
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A long-term water quality database has been developed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit to support water quality research within WE-38, a 7.3 km2 experimental subwatershed of Mahantango Creek Watershed located in east central Pennsylvania and draining to the Susquehanna River. Water quality data were collected at the outflow of WE-38, with record lengths of 24 years (1983-2007) for nitrate-N and ammonium-N and 23 years (1984-2007) for orthophosphate-P. The water quality sampling site is located 130 m upstream from the WE-38 weir and 30 m upstream of a footbridge that spans the stream channel. At base flow (discharge ~0.16m3 s-1), the width of the stream channel is about 1.8 m, and the thalweg depth is about 0.2 m.
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Data from a precipitation gauge network on the WE-38 Experimental Watershed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit (PSWMRU) operates a precipitation gauge network on the WE-38 Experimental Watershed to support long-term intensive research on the impacts of agriculture on water quality in the northeast United States. The WE-38 Watershed is situated within the Northern Appalachian Ridges and Valleys Province and drains 7.3 km2 of mostly rolling farmland within the northern portion of the Mahantango Creek Watershed, a 420 km2 tributary to the Susquehanna River about 48 km north of Harrisburg in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. In 1966, scientists from the Northeast Watershed Research Center (NWRC) established an intensive rainfall monitoring network throughout Mahantango Creek Watershed, consisting of 43 rain gauges located to provide uniform aerial coverage and characterize the full range of elevations in Mahantango Creek Watershed. In 1996, the advent of data-logging and measurement technology made it possible to upgrade the existing network of Fischer-Porter rain gauges. The digital punch paper tape system (drive shaft and gears) and weighing mechanism on each Fischer-Porter gauge were replaced with an Interface (Model SSB-AJ-100) load cell and connected to a Campbell CR10X data logger. The load cell data-logging system, which is still in use today, records accumulated precipitation every 5 minutes to the nearest 0.254 mm.
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The data producers document the 20-yr-long research effort to study the transport of N and P to surface and groundwater in Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed. They also document related efforts in nearby claypan watersheds and watersheds with contrasting soil and hydrologic conditions across the northern Missouri–southern Iowa region. Details of the analytical methods, instrumentation, method detection limits, and quality assurance program used to generate the data are described in the associated article along with a brief overview of significant findings. Nutrient concentrations in streams were in the range associated with nuisance algal growth and presumed loss of aquatic invertebrate diversity. Incorporation of fertilizers was shown to be the most effective practice for reducing nutrient transport in runoff. Despite the claypan soils, NO3− leaching was a major fate for fertilizer N, and significant contamination of the glacial till aquifer has occurred when long-term fertilizer and manure N inputs exceeded crop N requirements. A key finding of these studies was that field areas with the poorest crop growth were also the most vulnerable to nutrient as well as sediment and herbicide transport.
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The United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research Unit operates a network of instruments to measure relevant weather parameters in the Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed (GCEW). This watershed is the core of the Central Mississippi River Basin (CMRB) node in the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network. The current network of weighing, recording rain gauges stands at nine gauges in 73 square kilometers; standard 20-cm weighing gauges (Universal Recording Rain Gage, 5-780-9, Belfort Instrument Co.) with daily charts are installed at each site. An automated weather station also records air and soil temperature, and precipitation at an hourly and daily temporal scale.
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Flow monitoring in Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed started in 1971 at three nested watersheds ranging from 12 to 73 km2. Since then, runoff or stream flow has been measured at 14 plots, three fields, and 12 additional stream sites ranging from 0.0034 to 6067 km2 in the Central Mississippi River Basin. The data set presented here documents discharge across a range of catchment sizes in an area known for its high runoff potential. It constitutes the flow database of the Central Mississippi River Basin site of the Long-Term Agricultural Research network. Data from fields and stream sites show the dampening of peak flow values and lengthening of storm hydrographs caused by mixed land uses and longer times of concentration.
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The data set contains stream water concentrations of herbicides and nutrients for 153 sites in the northern Missouri/southern Iowa region from 1994 to 1995. The data are available in Microsoft Excel 2010 format. Sheet 1 (Metadata) of the file contains supporting information regarding the length of record, site locations, parameters measured, concentrations units, method detection limits, describes the meaning of zero and blank cells, defines the major land resource areas (MLRAs) of the region, and provides a link to the U. S. Geological Survey discharge data. Sheet 2 (Site names and locations) has a list of the site names by MLRA, river system, and site name. It also contains site locations, provided as Universal Transverse Mercator coordinates, drainage areas, and indicates which sites were co-located at U. S. Geological Survey gauge sites. Sheet 3 (Concentration Data) contains data for 15 herbicide and nutrient analytes along with the corresponding site name, river system, and MLRA. Atrazine concentrations in Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed (GCEW) were shown to be among the very highest of any watershed in the United States based on comparisons using the national Watershed Regressions for Pesticides (WARP) model and by direct comparison with the 112 watersheds used in the development of WARP. The herbicide data collected in GCEW are documented at plot, field, and watershed scales. This 20-yr-long (1991-2010) effort was augmented with a spatially broad effort within the Central Mississippi River Basin encompassing 12 related claypan watersheds in the Salt River Basin, two cave streams on the fringe of the Central Claypan Areas in the Bonne Femme watershed, and 95 streams in northern Missouri and southern Iowa. The research effort on herbicide transport has highlighted the importance of restrictive soil layers with smectitic mineralogy to the risk of transport vulnerability. Near-surface soil features, such as claypans and argillic horizons, result in greater herbicide transport than soils with high saturated hydraulic conductivities and low smectitic clay content.
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The data set contains concentration, load, and daily discharge data for Devils Icebox Cave and Hunters Cave from 1999 to 2002. The data are available in Microsoft Excel 2010 format. Sheet 1 (Cave Streams Metadata) contains supporting information regarding the length of record, site locations, parameters measured, parameter units, method detection limits, describes the meaning of zero and blank cells, and briefly describes unit area load computations. Sheet 2 (Devils Icebox Concentration Data) contains concentration data from all samples collected from 1999 to 2002 at the Devils Icebox site for 12 analytes and two computed nutrient parameters. Sheet 3 (Devils Icebox SS Conc Data) contains 15-minute suspended sediment (SS) concentrations estimated from turbidity sensor data for the Devils Icebox site. Sheet 4 (Devils Icebox Load & Discharge Data) contains daily data for discharge, load, and unit area loads for the Devils Icebox site. Sheet 5 (Hunters Cave Concentration Data) contains concentration data from all samples collected from 1999 to 2002 at the Hunters Cave site for 12 analytes and two computed nutrient parameters. Sheet 6 (Hunters Cave SS Conc Data) contains 15-minute SS concentrations estimated from turbidity sensor data for the Hunters Cave site. Sheet 7 (Hunters Cave Load & Discharge Data) contains daily data for discharge, load, and unit area loads for the Hunters Cave site. Atrazine concentrations in Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed (GCEW) were shown to be among the very highest of any watershed in the United States based on comparisons using the national Watershed Regressions for Pesticides (WARP) model and by direct comparison with the 112 watersheds used in the development of WARP. The herbicide data collected in GCEW are documented at plot, field, and watershed scales. This 20-yr-long (1991-2010) effort was augmented with a spatially broad effort within the Central Mississippi River Basin encompassing 12 related claypan watersheds in the Salt River Basin, two cave streams on the fringe of the Central Claypan Areas in the Bonne Femme watershed, and 95 streams in northern Missouri and southern Iowa. The research effort on herbicide transport has highlighted the importance of restrictive soil layers with smectitic mineralogy to the risk of transport vulnerability. Near-surface soil features, such as claypans and argillic horizons, result in greater herbicide transport than soils with high saturated hydraulic conductivities and low smectitic clay content.